(AGENPARL) - Roma, 11 Maggio 2022 - (AGENPARL) – mer 11 maggio 2022 The Codex Huexotzinco (Mexico, 1531):
Deciphering a Lost World of Art to Reveal its Secret Codes
Time: 4:00pm
Place: LJ-119
Date: 5/12/2022
Barbara Mundy, Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas at the Library of Congress, and Martha and Donald Robertson Chair in Latin American Art at Tulane University, will tell the story of the Codex Huexotzinco, a rare painted manuscript from 16th century Mexico.
The manuscript was created in 1531, less than a decade after the fall of the Aztec empire to Spanish conquistadors. Written using a pictographic system, it shows the tribute goods delivered to new Spanish overlords from the town of Huexotzinco (today, Huejotzingo, Puebla).
Among them were luxury textiles, and a painting created out of brilliant iridescent feathers. Because of what it depicts, and how it is painted, the Codex offers a unique understanding of artistic production in Mexico from before the Spanish Conquest, and shows the course of its development under Spanish rule.
The Kislak Chair supports in-depth research projects in the disciplines of archaeology, history, cartography, epigraphy, linguistics, ethno-history, ethnography, bibliography, and sociology, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary projects that combine disciplines in novel and productive ways. With a focus on the Western Hemisphere, the Chair may consider regions from the Arctic to Patagonia, including the Caribbean; from the eras before the arrival of Europeans to about 1825; and regarding themes as diverse as the histories of indigenous peoples, colonial and post-colonial movements, the geopolitics of empire, including among others those of France, England, Spain, and Portugal, new routes of trade and modes of commerce, and issues relating to environmental history and exposure to novel flora and fauna.
By encouraging broad interdisciplinary enquiry, the Kislak Chair helps to nourish a broad conversation ranging from the technical aspects of archeological discovery to issues of interest in the current cultural conversation. The annually appointed chair also helps to convene scholars, invited by the chair for seminars, consultations, and ongoing study of the artifacts in the Kislak Collection.